Sighing Hermione pulled her wand from the back of her jeans. She pushed her bedroom door closed and tapped it three times. "Alohamora." She said clearly and the door locked. She walked over and collapsed back onto the bed, setting her wand down carefully on the bedside table. She stared at the ceiling as exhaustion set into her muscles making moving extremely painful. She knew several spells or potions that would help but didn't dare even consider leaving the room. Leaving would risk running into him and she didn't want that. She felt a stinging in her eyes and she turned onto her side and started weeping. After a few minutes of this Hermione was interrupted by a small knock on the door.
She stood up, wiped her eyes and held the wand in her hand, just in case. "Who is it?" She asked.
"Hermione, are you ok? You looked rather ill after dinner. Can I come in?" Hermione unlocked the door. If anyone was going to plague her with questions on why she'd been crying she'd prefer it be Luna to Lavender who had less tact then you-know-who himself. She pulled the door open; Luna was standing with her hair wet, her clothes speckled in rain. The second she saw her she walked straight in, closed the door and asked her what happened. She suddenly didn't want to say anything.
"Hermione? What is it? You know you can trust me." Hermione rolled her eyes and sniffed, glancing down at Luna's hand covering hers. She nodded.
"Ok, ok, you'd better get comfy, it's gonna be a long story." Hermione's friend repositioned herself slightly, removing her brightly coloured jacket and an extravagant lion hat. Luna never did things by halves.
"You can start if you like." She said. Luna muttered under her breath and a soft white light projected from her wand, lighting up the room.
"Ok, well I guess I should start at the beginning."
"That's where most stories start." Luna interjected. Funny thing was she didn't sound sarcastic, just matter-of-factly, as always.
"Yeah… Anyway, I was on my way to the library to take out a book on advanced charms. We have a test in a few weeks, and I ran into Harry and Ron"
"Did Ronald say something mean to you?" Luna re-adjusted Hermione's pillow behind her back, her voice sounded concerned but also dangerous, Hermione didn't doubt that she'd hit Ron if she heard he'd been mean to her. It made Hermione smile to hear "Ronald." Other than herself Luna was the only one to use that name.
"No. Ron was fine. He helped get a book down, we joked around, you know, being friendly."
"Being friendly with your ex boyfriend? I wasn't aware that happened a lot.." Luna said with one pale eyebrow raised.
"Well we're not a normal ex couple. Anyway again, I took the book out and went off to look for somewhere quiet to read. Common room was full."
"That's not what made you cry was it?" Hermione rolled her eyes at this.
"Yeah Luna, the fact of not being able to read in the Gryffindor common room reduced me to a shuddering wreck."
"Sorry Hermione, I won't interrupt again."
"I slid into the prefect bathroom."
"What?" Luna stared at her friend. The prefect bathroom was exclusively for prefects, something Hermione wouldn't be eligible to become for another year.
"What? I can't help it if one of the prefects gave me the password after I helped them with a potions exam. Ok, so I ran the bath and added a mixture of stuff before I got in- Luna just as a side note you HAVE to try it, so many bubbles-"
"Hermione…? Are you ok?"
"What?" Hermione blinked and collected herself. "Oh right. So I may have fell asleep in the bath. I'd used a hovering charm to keep the book above water and I just closed my eyes for a second and bang, the door's opening."
"One of the other prefects caught you?" Luna's voice sounded a little higher than usual with concern. Hermione shook her head gravely.
"I wish Luna I wish. The door opening woke me up and I banged my head against the book and it fell. Luckily it fell onto my knees so only the bottom got wet. I span round and saw Harry standing there, just staring at me."
"Harry Potter? Was it an awkward experience?" Luna asked. Hermione remembered that Harry and Luna were quite good friends. Suddenly she was extremely hesitant to tell the girl what happened next. Gathering up her stupid worry and throwing it out of her mind she took a deep breath and faced her friend. "Very awkward. I sort of yelped and started freaking about. Harry turned away as I got out and put on my robe. Then he sort of saunters up to me, all bloody confident. Guess what happens? I start blushing like crazy."
Luna tilted her head to one side, her white-blonde waterfall of hair spilling onto her left shoulder. "You feel attracted to him?" Hermione nodded once. "It's understandable, he's good-looking and he is Harry Potter after all." Practical as always Luna's voice sounded as wise and mature as she always did.
"He asked why I was blushing and I just denied and said it was hot in the bathroom. Then he took a step closer to me and pulled on some of my wet hair, grinning."
"That sounds romantic. Sorry, I can be a little odd sometimes" Sounding a little wistful and a little sad Luna traced her fingers over her lion hat.
"It was, horribly so. And you're not odd Luna; you're just too unique for the idiots in this school to understand." Luna gave her a small smile and gestured for her to continue.
"He started joking about me reading in the bath, being all cute and ugh, messing me up inside. Then…" As her voice trailed away Luna glanced up in curiosity.
"You can say anything to me Hermione I'm not going to tell people what you say." This was enough to convince Hermione she could trust the slightly odd witch.
"I kissed him. I leant forward and kissed him before pulling away and running away." Hermione suddenly clasped a hand over her mouth. "The book! I left the darn book down there!" Luna stood up and walked barefoot to the door
"I'll go get the book if you want."
"You'll do that?"
"Of course, you need help, look after my hat." With that the blonde barefoot silver-eyed witch was gone.
Luna walked from Hermione's room through the Gryffindor common room. A couple of girls started snorting as she passed, her exotic bracelet made of sharks teeth creating a small clunking sound whenever she moved her wrist. "Hey Luna, off to the crazy ward at last?" a girl who Luna didn't particularly care about shouted from in front of a roaring fire.
"I'm not crazy, Hermione Granger said so."
When she reached the corridor of the prefect's room's she knocked on one of the doors. A boy who was a lot taller then her and had dark brown hair opened it. "Hello? Can I help you?" Awfully polite Luna thought as she studied him for a few moments. After deciding he'd probably help her she looked him in the eyes.
"A friend of mine left something in the prefect bathroom."
He raised his eyebrows at her. "A friend who isn't a prefect?"
"Yes. Could you fetch it for me, or tell me the password possibly?" He smiled at her and held the door open for her to enter as he walked inside his room. Luna stood leaning against the door and took in the room's décor. The boy was clearly a quidditch fan, magazines and posters adorned the tables and walls. A beautiful sketch of a snitch in flight caught Luna's eye. It was outlines in a gorgeous gold and the wings were no more than two or three quickly drawn lines. It looked very life like. As the boy emerged, now wearing shoes, she saw an issue of The Quibbler lying on a wooden chair. "The Quibbler? My father writes that you know?" The prefect's eyes widened as he realised who she must be.
"You're Luna Lovegood?" She nodded and held out her hand. The prefect took it and shook it proudly. "I love your father's magazine, I buy every copy." He said as they walked in unison down the corridor.
When they reached the door to the bathroom the prefect leaned forward and muttered something quietly. The door swung open revealing the wet stone floor and Hermione's book that had obviously been tossed to the side. Luna rushed forward and picked the book up. She pulled her wand out from behind her ear and whispered a few spells and within seconds the book was dry again. Grasping it to her chest she grinned and turned around to face her new prefect acquaintance. When she actually turned around she saw no sign of him, just the closed door.
She walked up to the door and pulled down on the handle. It didn't move, she'd been locked in. Placing the book down gently she tried a little more forcefully to open the door. Suddenly it dawned her that she'd been cruelly tricked.